William Glasser

Dr. Glasser is an internationally recognized psychiatrist. William Glasser was born in 1925. He was raised in Cleveland, OH. His first profession was a Chemical Engineer but decided to go into psychiatry when it became apparent to him this was his real interest in life. He attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland for medical school. At Veterans Administration Hospital he took his psychiatric training also attending UCLA. He became board certified in 1961. He did private practice from 1957 to 1986. Dr. Glasser’s approach is non-traditional. He does not believe in the concept of mental illness unless there is something organically wrong with the brain that can be confirmed by a pathologist. In 1967, he founded The Institute for Reality Therapy. In 1994, The Institute was renamed The Institute for Control Theory, Reality Therapy and Quality Management to reflect the scope of The Institute’s teachings. Two years later it became The William Glasser Institute with Dr. Glasser renaming his theory, choice theory. Initially, The Institute was active only in the United States and Canada but under Dr. Glasser’s direction, his teachings have now spread to many countries (wglasser.com) Glasser is best known for his book Reality Therapy which he wrote in 1965. The idea behind this type of therapy is that people need to meet the basic needs of love both giving and receiving and the need of finding self-worth. A therapy that leads all patients toward reality, toward grappling successfully with the tangible and intangible aspects of the real world, might accurately be simply called Reality Therapy. (Glasser 6) Glasser states the in order for us to fulfill our needs we must have one person that we care for and in return cares for us to meet our basic needs. Reality Therapy is based on Choice Theory. Choice theory states that: • all we do is behave,
• that almost all behavior is chosen, and
• that we are driven by our genes to satisfy five basic needs: